Travel to Okavango Kwara

our all-time favourite part of the Okavango Delta

At around 1750 square kilometres, Okavango Kwara Concession is a superb private safari area restricted to around 40 guests in four camps, around 44 square kilometres per person, which is a very low guest density.

Kwara is almost certainly our favourite part of the Okavango Delta, offering the perfect combination of unassuming and well-priced camps, genuinely superb safari guiding and incredible wildlife.

This area is a very pretty landscape of dry mopane woodland and open grasslands bordering seasonal floodplains with permanent river channels such as the Khwai River to the south.

The flood in this northern part of the delta is relatively reliable, turning large parts of the area into a gorgeous water-world.

The area is well known for containing an unusually rich mix of predators, usually with plenty of lions, wild-dogs, leopards, servals and spotted hyenas. Cheetahs sightings are less frequent, but relatively reliable for this part of the world.

Kwara is a popular denning area for spotted hyenas and wild-dogs during May-Aug which is a major highlight.

The owners of this concession are very focused on excellent guiding and use both a tracker and a guide team on safari which greatly improves the quality of wildlife viewing. They also offer serious night vehicle safari unlike many other concessions. We cannot emphasise enough how much a tracker adds to the safari experience.

When it comes to trip shapes and durations in Botswana, most visitors combine 2, 3 or 4 lodges by light aircraft over 6-12 nights, one or two of which will usually be here in Okavango Delta, combined with the Linyanti Waterfront and/or Makgadikgadi areas.

These trips are often done in combination with further nights at the Victoria Falls and/or down in the Cape.

The usual stay duration on the Kwando Concession is 3-6 nights, with longer stays often being split between two camps.

Seasonality

The Kwara Concession can be visited year-round, but does experience considerable seasonal variations.

The May-Jun flood season is considered to be a great time to visit, with verdant landscapes and lots of baby animals. Temperatures can drop towards freezing during the night, but the days are gorgeous and there are virtually no insects around. The camps here are primarily focused on vehicle safari, which should be very strong throughout this period. This period is a little early for full flood and mokoro canoe safari, but the camps are usually able to offer motorboat safari in the permanent water channels.

The Jul-Sep dry season is the classic time to visit the Okavango Delta and is considered to be the best time for wildlife viewing as animals are drawn to the floodwaters which are at their peak. This is the high season in terms of prices and visitor numbers but, due to restrictions, traffic issues are only an issue in the public access areas. As well as strong vehicle safari and motorboat safari, mokoro canoe safari should be possible during the early part of this season, but by the middle of August the waters have usually receded.

The Oct-Dec hot season is the transition period between the peak of the dry season and the start of the rains. Temperatures and humidities can become uncomfortably high in advance of the rains. With the floods having receded in most areas, the wildlife becomes very concentrated around the few remaining water sources, making for very strong wildlife viewing. If the rains arrive, the wildlife may disperse somewhat, but sightings remain strong. Water-based activities are unlikely to be available. The camps are significantly discounted during this period.

Jan-Apr is the main green season when the area experiences the majority of its rainfall and temperatures drop slightly. The landscapes tend to be verdant and beautiful, the animals well fed and there’s lots of babies around. Conditions prove dramatically through these months, making late March and the whole of April particularly attractive, especially given the often dramatically discounted prices.

Getting there

The camps in the Kwara area are almost always accessed by light aircraft into the local bush airstrip.

Unusually the camp can also be reached by motorboat from the end of the Mopane Tongue. Penetrating the delta by boat can be fun and provide a heightened sense of adventure.

top quality safari guiding that makes the difference